Terre Napoleon | Page 9

an attack by the French
from the Mauritius, which would have taken place long ago if the
enemy had possessed a naval force equal to the enterprise" (Ibid 7 248
to 250).) but he was destitute of effective vessels for service afloat.
When the navigator Flinders was wrecked in the Porpoise in August
1803--his own exploring ship, the Investigator, being by this time
unseaworthy--Governor King had no other craft to give him for his
return voyage than the decrepit Cumberland, a mere leaky little barge
hardly fit for better uses than ferrying a placid lake. The colony was, in

short, simply a kraal for yarding British undesirables and housing their
keepers; its remoteness was an advantage for the purpose in view; and
it never seemed to strike the officials in England who superintended its
affairs, that the adequate defence of a gaol against foreign aggression
was an undertaking that called for exertion or forethought. The
unreluctant retrocession of the Cape to the Dutch in 1800 indicates that
the interest of defending Australia was lost sight of in the midst of what
appeared to be more pressing considerations.
It has been remarked above that there was a period when the peace of
Australia was imperilled. The danger was obviated, certainly not
because of the efficiency of the defence, but rather through lack of
enterprise on the part of the Admiral in command of the French
squadron in the Indian Ocean. It will be well to narrate the
circumstances, together with an incident which illustrates in an
amusing manner the kind of man this officer was.
After the signing of the Treaty of Amiens, Bonaparte sent out a
squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Linois, conveying General
Charles Decaen, who was commissioned to administer the former
French possessions in India, which, under the terms of the treaty, were
to be surrendered to France. But when the expedition arrived at
Pondicherry, the Governor-General of India, Lord Wellesley, gave
orders to his subordinates that no concessions were to be made to the
French without his express authority; and as he stubbornly refused to
give his warrant for surrendering an inch of territory, there was nothing
for General Decaen to do but sail away to Mauritius, then, as already
remarked, a French colony. Lord Wellesley acted under secret orders
from the Secretary of State, Lord Hobart, dated October 17, 1802, only
seven months after the treaty was signed, for the British Government
did not believe in the permanency of the peace and did not desire the
French to re-assert a footing in India, where their presence, in the event
of a renewal of hostilities, would be dangerous.
When the war was renewed, Linois, with his squadron, was still in the
Indian Ocean. The Isle of France was not a self-supporting colony, but
had to depend on money and supplies obtained either from Europe or

from the vessels of the East India Company, which, from time to time,
were captured by French privateers and men-of-war. When Nelson
shattered the naval power of France at Trafalgar in 1805, and vigilant
British frigates patrolled the whole highway of commerce from Europe
to the Cape of Good Hope, Decaen's position became precarious. The
supplies sent out to him were frequently captured by the enemy; and
had it not been that Port Louis became a regular nest of adventurous
French privateers--"pirates," the British called them--who frequently
found a rich prey in the shape of heavily laden India merchantmen, his
garrison must soon have been starved out.
The incident to which reference has been made occurred in 1804, and is
probably without a parallel in naval history as an example of the effect
of audacity acting on timidity. It was known that a convoy of ships
belonging to the East India Company was to leave Canton early in the
year. Linois, with five vessels, including his flagship, the Marengo, 74
guns, sailed for the Straits of Malacca to intercept them. On February
14, near Polo Aor, to the north-east of Singapore, the French sighted
the convoy, sixteen Company ships, fourteen merchantmen and a brig,
all laden with tea, silks, and other rich merchandise.
The East India Company's vessels carried guns, but they were not
equipped for facing heavily armed men-of-war. Their crews were not
trained fighting men; they were deeply laden, and their decks were
heavily cumbered. Moreover, they were not protected by a naval
squadron; and had Rear-Admiral Linois been a commander of daring,
initiative, and resource, the greater part, or the whole, of this enormous
mass of floating treasure might have fallen like a ripe peach into his
hands.
But he had to contend with an English sailor of astounding and quite
picturesque assurance in Nathaniel Dance, the commodore of the fleet.
Dance fully expected, when he left Canton, that he would meet